Super Bowl XLVI Fun Facts

The two-week wait between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl can seem really long sometimes.  There are only so many stories, and there are only so many angles to each one that can be taken.  Although, this year there seems to be just as much talk about our hosts and Manning The Elder as there is about the Giants and Patriots.  Anyway, instead of analyzing this thing to death like everybody else, I'm going to follow the tradition I established last year and share some fun facts about the Super Bowl that nobody else seems to realize or care about, but I find interesting nonetheless.

• This is the fifth Super Bowl rematch in history.  Of the previous four, the team that won the first time won again three times.  The only ones to split were the Dolphins and Redskins (Miami won Super Bowl VII, Washington won 10 years later).  San Francisco beat Cincinnati twice (XVI and XXIII) and Dallas beat Buffalo in consecutive years (XXVII and XXVIII).  The Cowboys and Steelers have played three times.  Pittsburgh won Super Bowls X and XIII, while Dallas won the third time (Super Bowl XXX).
• The winner is guaranteed to join the Steelers, 49ers, Cowboys and Packers as the only four-time Super Bowl champions.  In fact, the Giants and Patriots have made a combined 12 Super Bowl appearances.  The record is 13, set by the Cowboys (8) and Steelers (5) in Super Bowl XXX and tied by the Steelers (8) and Packers (5) last year.
• The Giants become the third team (and first from the NFC) to play in a Super Bowl on each of the four networks, and they can become the first to win the Super Bowl on four different networks.  Pittsburgh had a chance to do that last year, but lost to the Packers, while Denver was the first team to play in a Super Bowl on all four networks.
• This is just weird: this is the 25th anniversary of the Giants winning Super Bowl XXI and the 21st anniversary of their winning Super Bowl XXV.  They then went 21 years before winning Super Bowl XLII, and are now in a position to again win another title four years later, 25 years after their first.  If this trend continues, let's congratulate the Giants on their Super Bowl LXIII and LXVII titles.
• Every time the Giants have been to the Super Bowl, they played their eventual opponent's division during the regular season.  The three times they've won the Super Bowl, the Giants faced their eventual opponent in the regular season.  In 2000 (the year they lost to Baltimore), they played the Ravens in the preseason, but not the regular season, even though they faced the AFC Central that year.  This year is the first time that they played their eventual Super Bowl foe on the road during the regular season (the 1986 Broncos, 1990 Bills and 2007 Patriots all visited Giants Stadium).
• This is the first time since 1974 that a season involving an NFL work stoppage didn't end with the Redskins winning the Super Bowl.  Washington won two of its three titles in strike seasons (1982 and 1987).
• Amazingly, this is the first time that the two starting quarterbacks in the Super Bowl are both previous Super Bowl MVPs, even though the MVP has been a quarterback 24 times.  Although, Brady was the MVP when the Patriots won their first title, beating Kurt Warner, Eli was the MVP when the Giants beat Brady (a two-time winner) four years ago, and Drew Brees was the MVP when the Saints beat the Colts (Peyton was the MVP when Indy beat Chicago).  There have also been eight matchups between quarterbacks that would eventually be Super Bowl MVP at some point.
• The last Summer Olympic year that didn't feature the Patriots in the Super Bowl was 2000, when the Rams beat the Titans.  The Patriots were in Super Bowl XXVIII in 2004, and they, of course, played the Giants in 2008.
• Tom Brady can tie all sorts of records in this game.  He's going to tie John Elway's record with five Super Bowl starts, can tie Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana as the only quarterbacks with four Super Bowl wins, and join Montana as the only three-time MVPs.
• Three teams (the Patriots, Steelers and Colts) have won 10 of the last 11 AFC championships, including the last nine.  The only team to break that stranglehold was the 2002 Raiders.  In that same timeframe, 10 different NFC teams have been to the Super Bowl.  The Giants are the only repeat team in that span, and their appearance this year snaps a string of 10 different NFC champions in 10 years.
• The Giants can become the first 9-7 Super Bowl champion in NFL history.  They also tied an NFL record by playing four different division winners (New England, Green Bay, New Orleans and San Francisco) during the regular season.  The Patriots are the third division winner that they'll face a second time in the playoffs, and they've already won at Green Bay and San Francisco in the postseason.
• Bill Belichick has been on the sidelines for every Giants Super Bowl win.  He was the Giants' defensive coordinator for Super Bowls XXI and XXV, and, of course, Patriots head coach for Super Bowl XLII.
• Finally, Manning will be the starting quarterback for a game in Indianapolis this season, after all.  (Since Eli's starting the Super Bowl in Peyton's stadium this season, maybe Peyton will start the Super Bowl in Eli's stadium two years from now.)